Researchers in Munich have created a pair of Bluetooth in-ear headphones that also offers performance tracking via in-built health and body sensors.

With passive noise cancellation, pass-through audio transparency when you need it, and an ear bone transduction microphone, these really do seem like gadgets that take existing gadget real estate and make the most out of it.

The Dash gets rid of wires entirely, offering instead a pair of completely discrete earbuds that can work with a connected smartphone, or completely on their own via an internal 4GB of storage for loading up your own songs directly, Tech Crunch reported.

That would probably be enough to recommend them to athletes and active users who want to get the cables out of the way, but The Dash also has an ear bone mic that eliminates background interference, and it acts as a fully fledged activity tracker, with built-in heart rate, oxygen saturation and energy-expenditure monitoring.

You can also control playback from the on-device touch sensitive surface, as well as turn off passive audio noise cancellation to fully hear your surroundings, which is handy if you're running in a busy city.

The left bud controls your activity monitoring (you can get audio updates on your current measured stats), while the right one manages audio controls, including audio volume and playlist selection.